


Don't Call Me Eds

by CherrySlushee



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Angst, M/M, i'm dead inside
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-19 04:43:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19968238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CherrySlushee/pseuds/CherrySlushee
Summary: This wasn't how it was supposed to go.





	Don't Call Me Eds

"Don't call me Eds." 

That was the last thing Eddie Kaspbrak ever said to Richie Tozier. 

Pennywise was dead. But at what cost?

As he lay on the mucky ground, eyes fluttering open and shut, Eddie tried to focus on Richie's face. He tried to think about the life they were going to make for themselves when they left this fucking cave. The life they were going to build together. 

But it hurt. It hurt so bad. 

"Stay with me, Eds." 

At this point, Richie knew that Eddie was going to die. There was too much damage. Not enough time. 

Not enough time. Richie snorted in the face of the irony of it all. It came out as a choked sob. Eddie couldn't die...not after all of this. They had come so far. Too far for Eddie to quit now. 

Quit? Maybe that wasn't the right word. Eddie had risked his life for them. All of them. He had been so very afraid, yet he had done it. Richie didn't know if he had even an ounce of that kind of courage in him. Probably not. 

Richie cupped Eddie's face in his hands. He could feel the tears collecting in the creases of his fingers. They were warm. 

But Eddie's face was cold. Icy, almost. 

He was pale, blood seeping from his midsection. It was staining Richie's jeans as he knelt in it, the blood pooling around him. He could care less. 

Richie's own tears fell onto Eddie's cheeks, cascading down and mixing with the dying boy's in the crooks of his trembling hands. 

"Don't call me Eds." 

It was said playfully; a final act of courage. 

A final act.

Eddie's eyelids slipped shut, and he went limp in Richie's arms. 

Richie squeezed his eyes shut, hot tracks trailing down his face and dripping down his chin. 

"Please don't leave me," he whispered, opening them again and leaning down to brush a strand of greasy brown hair from Eddie's forehead. 

He knew what he had to do now. 

He said the one thing he should have said all along. The one thing he wanted to from the moment he laid eyes on his best friend. 

"I love you." 

And then, he lost it. 

He clung to Eddie's corpse, pulling it to his chest. Eddie's head lolled backwards, lifeless. 

Richie cried into the small man's chest. Wet, fat tears staining a red shirt, just like the ones he used to wear when they were children. 

His fingers clenched the fabric of the shirt, knuckles white.

This wasn't how it was supposed to end. Eddie was supposed to leave Myra. He was supposed to move in with Richie. They were supposed to be happy.

But now, Eddie was dead. He had risked his life for not only Richie, not only the Losers, but so many others. 

Pennywise was dead. But at what cost?

Eddie's life, that's what cost.

Years later, Richie only has the faintest remembrance of a small, mousy-haired, germaphobic boy in a red shirt. He didn't know who he was, or why he was important. But there was a feeling behind the memory he couldn't shake. 

Richie was rummaging through an old box, one he found in his parents' house years ago but never bothered to open. 

He pulled out a small picture, and his heart swelled. He didn't know why. 

It was of him when he was about 10 or 11. But, right beside him, was a much shorter boy in a red shirt and khaki shorts. Both their faces were covered in mud and grime. They were holding hands. 

Richie felt his eyes grow hot. 

By looking at the smiles of both him and the boy, he knew.

He had loved this boy, and this boy had loved him.

"Eddie." 

That was his name, wasn't it? The boy's. 

Richie Tozier has loved Eddie Kaspbrak. 

A long time ago, he had loved a boy.

He had loved. 

He had been loved. 

But that love had been lost and worn with time. 

Richie put the picture back into the box in tears. 

He didn't know who this boy was. 

But there was a feeling behind the memory that he couldn't shake. 


End file.
